I'm Looking for Guest Bloggers

I've decided that the best way for me to keep a steady stream of content added to this blog, is to let others write it for me.

So, I'm looking for articles and tips written by subscribers to my newsletter. I will then post the articles on the blog. PLUS, I'll add them to the article section inside the SBM Marketing Club members area.

This is a great opportunity for you to show off your writing skills, plus create backlinks to your website.

Here's the criteria:

1. Articles must be between 200 and 800 words and cannot contain ANY links in the body of the article. Of course, a resource box will be accepted and any links in your resource box will be made live.

2. Articles can only be on the following topics:

Web 2.0 - this includes blogging, social media, social networking, squidoo, etc.

Article Marketing - includes all aspects of article research, writing, submissions, etc.

Affiliate Marketing - includes all areas of affiliate marketing.

3. Articles must already be free of typographical errors and formatted so that all I'll need to do is copy and paste them.

4. Articles must be original to you. This means that you wrote the article yourself. IF you do use a private label article, it has to have enough editorial changes to make it uniquely your own.

5. If you do not want others to be able to use your articles on their blogs or websites, you MUST specify this in the closing paragraph or copyright section of the article.

To submit an article for consideration, first make sure you're a member of the FREE SBM Marketing Club. Then send the article to contactsbm @ go2sbm.com

I will then contact you and give you an approximate date when it will be published.

When sending your article, PLEASE include "article submission" in the email's subject or it could be deleted.

Sharon McPherson
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Affiliate ABCs - Free Podcasts

If you're just getting started with affiliate marketing, make sure to stop by geekcast.fm and listen to the free Affiliate ABCs podcasts with Vinny OHare, a.k.a. NyFalcon and Deb Carney, from Team Loxly.

If you're unfamiliar with Deb and Vinnie, they're both affiliate marketers in the retail market. That's right, they've created affiliate marketing success - OUTSIDE the "make money online" and "informational product" niche.

And you probably won't find it surprising that my favorites of their 6 free Affiliate ABCs podcasts are Getting Started Using Twitter Part 1 and Getting Started Using Twitter Part 2

Sharon McPherson
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Affiliate Income Using FREE Methods

I recently included Affiliate Income Using FREE Methods into the members discount area of the SBM Marketing Club.

Presented in an easy formula so that you can actually follow along, Affiliate Income Using FREE Methods is a total of 30 powerful videos that shows you step-by-step how to set up an entire affiliate marketing campaign which will enable you to start making money online without having to invest a dime.

Please note that the price shown on the salespage is NOT what club members pay. To purchase this product at member discount prices, log-into the SBM Marketing Club and click the "Member Discount" link in the menu.

If you are not yet a SBM Marketing Club member, you can join free here!


Sharon McPherson
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Free Club for Affiliate, Article & Web2.0 Marketers Launches

I'm happy to announce that the SBM FREE Marketing Club is finally launched!

SBM Marketing Club members receive unlimited access to Article, Affiliate and Web 2.0 marketing tools, resources and information that helps them learn how to effectively build, manage and grow their business.

Here's some of what you'll receive immediate access to with your FREE membership:

• A subscription to my weekly newsletter.
  
  


• Tips, Articles & Affirmations related to starting, building and marketing your online business.
  
  


• Audios, Videos & Reports related to Affiliate, Article and Web 2.0 marketing.
  
  


• PDF Copy of Affiliate Classroom Magazine. (Updated Monthly)
  
  


• Free access to powerful online marketing tools.
  
  


• Free Ebooks & Software. (Updated Weekly)
  
  


• Exclusive Product Discounts available to Members ONLY!

So what are you waiting for? Join the SBM FREE Marketing Club now!


Sharon McPherson
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How a Bankrupt Fitness Trainer is Using Social Media to Dominate Affiliate Marketing

When I first started using Twitter 9 months ago, Scott Tousignant, also known as @FatLossQuickie, was among the first users I started following.

My first impression of Scott was that this was a guy who truly demonstrated what the word "social" really means in relation to "social networking".

Apparently Clickbank thinks so too, because in November of 2008 they featured a 3 part series that Scott wrote about how you can promote Clickbank products using Twitter on their blog.

And when Deborah Micek (@CoachDeb), co-creator of Blogi360, and one of the social media experts I most admire, started raving about him, I knew I had made a smart decision when I chose to follow him.

That's why I was happy to learn that Scott recently launched a new training program called, Social Media Profit Coach, where you will discover how you too can use the same strategies he did to harness the power of Web 2.0/Social Media to take his Fitness Training business online, build it to the point where he no longer has to have a brick and mortar business, can operate it from the comfort of his home, set the hours he wants, and enjoy the freedom that his new lifestyle offers.

The strategies that are taught within the Social Media Profit Coach program can be applied to any business in any niche. And you don't need to be an experienced online marketer to begin taking immediate action applying these strategies.

If nothing else, at least go there and download his FREE guide, Fat Loss Riches to discover how Scott cracked the affiliate marketing code to dominate the search engines for every product he promotes.

Sharon McPherson
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Free Affiliate Marketing Video Squeeze Pages

Hi Guys,

I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. I've been busy working on getting things set up to enable you to get your hands on the great things you'll find inside the SBM Marketing Club once it is launched.

But because I don't want you to have to wait too long, I wanted to let you know about a great bonus resource right now!

It's called, Affiliate Power Videos...

When videos began to grow popular on the Internet, the Internet Marketing landscape started to change.

And Affiliate Marketing was not exempt.

The most classic mistake people tend to make in affiliate marketing is not capturing the opt-in leads first before sending their visitors to the merchant's website.

So what smart marketers often do is have their own Squeeze Page for their visitors to opt into their list, BEFORE sending them to the website they are an affiliate for.

This is so the affiliate marketer can build their own opt-in list and do follow-ups later.

On the other hand, a few, but exceptionally smart marketers, have taken this to the next level.

THEY IMPLEMENT VIDEO MARKETING, TOO.

You've probably noticed most top Internet Marketing experts are now using videos on their Squeeze Pages. And smart affiliates are doing the same for their own squeeze pages for one obvious reason:

VIDEOS CAN SKYROCKET YOUR TRAFFIC AND SALES CONVERSIONS!

Unfortunately the problem with video marketing is that you have to know how to create your own videos.

And even if you can make your own videos, what if you learn that the affiliate program doesn't convert well for you after all?

Affiliate Power Videos removes these barriers.

At Affiliate Power Videos, you INSTANTLY get 10 unique, high converting Video Squeeze Pages, PLUS 5 new ones every month.

So all you have to do is:

Step 1: join any or all of the listed affiliate programs (free)

Step 2: Upload the video and squeeze pages to your web host

Step 3: Start driving in traffic, build your opt-in list and rake in affiliate sales!

You might be thinking that this is going to be a costly membership - maybe $97, $197 or even $297 a month.

Well, you're in for a pleasant surprise -- because this one's on the house (read: zero cost)!

Sign up for your FREE Silver membership access now - and I know you could very well have your own string of affiliate video businesses up and running in just a few hours, with or without any technical experience on your part!


Sharon McPherson
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Quality is Important in Affiliate Marketing

If you're new to affiliate marketing, you may be wondering what constitutes a quality affiliate program and what doesn't. With so many different programs out there, it's sometimes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, but if you are considering promoting a particular program, there are a few things you need to consider.

Before you decide to devote your time, energy and resources into marketing an affiliate product make sure the organization behind the product is a quality one.

Does this particular affiliate program provide a quality product that does what the company says it does? Usually, the only way to know for sure is to order the product and try it out yourself. If what the company says about the product matches what the product does, then you can be fairly confident the company is reputable.

There are too many affiliate programs out there that think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, when actually, what they are the crumbs left on the table. A poor affiliate program says one thing about a product, while the product says something else.

Think of how it annoys you to purchase something that doesn't deliver. It will annoy the people who click through your affiliate link from your website and purchase an inferior product just as much. Remember, your site's reputation is at stake -so make sure the affiliate product or service is of high quality.

The next thing to consider when looking for a quality affiliate program is the commission offered. You'll most likely spend time advertising and distributing articles to promote this product. You will not be paid directly for these marketing efforts and since your income will come from product sales, you'll want your commission to be at least 20% or more.

You need to secure a high enough commission to pay for your time investment in marketing the affiliate product. Writing and submitting articles takes time and effort. So does learning about the product and keeping up-to-date on product enhancements. A fair commission is your only compensation for these efforts.

In addition, the best affiliate programs also offer recurring commissions on sales, which means you'll receive commission when that customer buys again. And if you can hook up with a program that pays you a recurring commission on the sales of any 2nd tier affiliates you recruit, you've just discovered an affiliate marketers dream - passive income.

Another thing to look for when considering a quality affiliate program is the support you receive from the program manager. A quality program provides you with a knowledgeable affiliate manager to help you succeed.

When you are new to affiliate marketing, you need that mentor/trainer who will guide you in your marketing efforts. You also want an affiliate manager who provides resources to help you promote the product better and helps you identify certain niches suitable for your product. They can give you valuable information concerning the product, including updates. This information can then become the content for your article marketing efforts.

Finally, a quality affiliate program pays you on a regular basis without fail for the time and effort spent on marketing their product. Don't wait six months for payment, the best programs pay monthly.

Quality affiliate programs are out there. However, you must take time to find them. Choose a program with the above considerations in mind and you have a better chance to select one of the better programs out there.

Keep the wind behind your sales,
Jim Slader

Jim Slader manages the Affiliate Program at Article Marketer. He provides training and advice to article marketer affiliates. If you're looking for a quality affiliate program with all of the benefits mentioned above and more, check out Article Marketer.

Sharon McPherson
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Sylvie Fortin Advises Niche Marketers To 'Dummie Up'

In case you haven't heard, successful and well-known Internet Marketers, Sylvie and Michel Fortin, recently launched a new blog called, Marketers Board.

In their latest post, Sylvie, co-founder of The Licorice Group, a publishing and training company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and online marketers grow their businesses, reveals a virtually unknown resource for finding niche markets using the popular 'Dummies Books' website.

As an affiliate marketer you should always be on the lookout for new resources to help locate the hottest and most profitable niches. Sylvie's video, "How Do I Find Profitable Niche Markets?" will show you how to remove some of the guess work to finding those niches.

Yes, it is free and no, you don't have to give your email address to view the video, but I highly recommend you join their mailing list to receive the latest "Marketing Tips, Rants and Raves From Michel and Sylvie Fortin".


Sharon McPherson
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How I Made Over $300 in 6 Hours Using a CPA Affiliate Network, Squidoo and an Infomercial

Ever notice how circumstances that you originally think are a pain in the butt, can actually turn into an unexpected blessing?

That's exactly what happened to me, when a sleepless night led to me discovering a method that enabled me to make over $300 in 6 Hours using a CPA Affiliate Network, Squidoo and an Infomercial.

While suffering through another bout of frequent insomnia I happened upon a television infomercial that caught my attention because it was advertising a marketing program that I had seen a few days before as a $17 cost per action offer at ROI Rocket.

And that's when the light bulb went off!

Realizing that I could take advantage of the free website traffic the television ads would generate, I immediately implemented the following marketing plan...

1. Research - I needed to be certain that the program I would be promoting was above board, so I did a Google search and checked InfomercialRatings.com to see what folks were saying about it. Satisfied that the company was indeed providing people with what the infomercial claimed they would, I then wrote a short review of the program using the information I had learned from my research.



2. Gathered My Affiliate Link and a few graphics for the program from ROI Rocket.



3. Set Up A Squidoo Lens. Knowing how quickly marketing trends can change I knew I didn't have time to set up a review page on my own website then wait for Google to index it, and not wanting to spend money on an Adsense campaign, I decided to use Squidoo to build my review page after reading that lenses there get indexed by the search engines rather quickly.

Then I went to bed - anxiously anticipating what type of results my little experiment would render.

Imagine my surprise when the next morning I had not only earned over $300 in affiliate commissions, but my Squidoo Lens was ranked #1 on Google for my chosen keywords - which I made sure were included in the title and url of my lens.

And although I did make some commissions out-of-the-blue, I could always tell when there had been another airing of the infomercial because commissions would spike dramatically for a few hours then trail off. The people who were visiting my lens and clicking through my affiliate link were not spending any money, yet I made $17 a pop each time they filled out a form to get free information.

This trend continued for approximately 5 months until the infomercials stopped airing and the company removed the offer from ROI Rocket. I then simply deleted the lens.

Now I'm not going to promise you that you'll make the same money I did, or that your lens will get indexed by Google in under 6 hours, but if you'd like to try this marketing method, here's the steps to take.

1. Check out the latest infomercials and read what people are saying about them at InfomercialRatings.com



2. Sign up for a free affiliate account at ROI Rocket. Search for cost per action or pay per lead offers that are either an exact match or comparable to the infomercial product you have chosen to promote.



3. Open a free account at Squidoo and build a lens for the program you have chosen making sure to use a keyword-rich title and url for the lens. If you're unfamiliar with what Squidoo is or building a lens, I suggest you check out Social Networking on Squidoo written by Squidoo expert, Tiffany Dow.

If you decide to try this for yourself I'd love to know what your results are. You can enter them in the comment box found below.

Resources mentioned in this post:
ROI Rocket
Squidoo
InfomercialRatings.com
Social Networking on Squidoo


Sharon McPherson
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